Theories of Motivation

In today's media space is increasingly found a mysterious word "motivation".No, in general, it is clear that this is roughly what drives and motivates us to action.But not so easy as it seems.There are certain theories of motivation that explains what it is and where it came from, this is the motivation there.

So psychologists divide human behavior into 2 stages - to the tune and the action itself.Thus, the motive or the motivation is said that pushes us to certain actions.To make it easier to understand where there is the initial stimulus to action have been developed so-called theory of motivation.

Questions occurrence of motives of human actions is still interested in ancient philosophy.The first psychological theory of motivation arose in close connection with the rational and irrational teachings.Thus, rational scientists explain human behavior in terms of the selection and decision-making, and irrational - using the principle of the machine and reflex.It is worth noting that for irrational increasingly refers to an animal, and the rational - for people, because it was believed that a person has nothing to do with animals.A further impetus to the development of theories of motivation was the development of Darwin's theory of evolution.Henceforth the need no longer be seen as exclusively the needs of the body, greater inherent animals.Thus, we can distinguish two psychological theories of motivation:

first - behavioral or behavioral theory.It is believed that this approach is hopelessly outdated and gone forever.In a nutshell, it can be described as a stimulus-response.There is some incentive, in the event that there is a clear reaction.It is quite logical, although the study of large groups of people misfires.Thus, at one and the same stimulus different people can react differently.

second - is closely connected with the theory of Maslow's needs, with its famous pyramid.Any activity is to meet the needs of a specific level.In one level - physical needs, 2 - the need for security, 3 - need for belonging to a group, 4 - the need maorazvitiya, 5 - the need for self-realization.

Unlike the first two, the third branch - namely, cognitive theories of motivation, pays more attention to the process of cognition, acquisition, assimilation of information and how it all affects human behavior.Cognitive theory explains how a person perceives and interprets the data obtained from the outside.Anyway, external information is valid for each person.Upon receipt of a certain piece of information triggered cognitive processes.First, thanks to the attention going on sorting, selection of information and its storage.Almost immediately began working with attention categorization, that is, the mechanism of recognition that caught the attention.Finally, the third stage is the attribution, that is, understanding what makes a man.But it depends on the understanding of what we know about the outside world.